House and Garden

Danielle Rollins' 1927 home was designed by renowned Atlanta architect Philip Trammell Schutze and features a knot garden at its entrance. Rollins moved into the home in 2007. The garden is imprinted with many elements of Danielle's personal style, including roses in her favorite color: orange, and an emphasis on French and English design and an extensive kitchen garden.

Danielle's Garden

Atlanta lifestyle guru Danielle Rollins author of Soiree: Entertaining With Style has hosted everyone from fashion designers Oscar de la Renta to Lela Rose at her elegant home. But the real pride of Rollins' home is her exquisite garden, which ranges from an elaborate edible garden featuring heirloom varieties to formal gardens that make the perfect backdrop for her glamorous parties.

Knot Garden

Formally designed knot gardens like this one at the entrance to Danielle Rollins' Buckhead home, can be traced back to Elizabethan England where they were often used to contain culinary herbs. Knot gardens are often composed on boxwood. Rollins' knot garden is formed from Japanese boxwood.

Taking Design Outside

Danielle's outdoor space is built for entertaining, with unique garden "rooms" like this one, ornamented with a lion's head fountain and an elegant seating area with metal furniture. Danielle designed the furniture and had it manufactured by a blacksmith based on a design she saw in St. Tropez, adding crisp black and white pillows.

The Real Rills

When renovating her home, Rollins removed holly bushes to discover rills that were part of architect Philip Shutze's original landscape design for the estate.

The Bird Cage

Rollins maintains a small aviary in a secret nook of the garden. "I love birds," says Rollins. Her children have given several of their finches creative names: Jack the Ripper and Fidel. The beautiful pre-made birds' nests are used by the birds for nesting and use the fibers to make their own nests.

Pretty Rows

Raised beds and pea gravel maintain order in the edible garden. Rollins' father has helped create trellises for the edible garden where Rollins grows a variety of heirloom vegetables and fruit.

In the Green

The front view of Danielle Rollins' Atlanta home speaks to the beautiful results of having a team of groundskeepers and a homeowner who loves gardening tending to this immaculate home.

Playhouse Perch

Rollins' children's playhouse is flanked by a charming area for children to sit and play. In the distance, the extensive potager that supplies much of the households' fruit and vegetables.

Little Secrets

On an estate filled with exquisite views, there is the occasional charming surprise, like this bird's nest tucked into a hidden corner of the garden.

A Sense of Order

Even edible gardens can be aesthetic with advance planning. Rollins' features distinctive raised beds and a border of boxwoods to bring style to even the most utilitarian garden space.

The View

Rollins' is inspired by European gardens and prefers a structural, almost architectural approach in her garden, an approach defined by her love of boxwood. "I tend to like things grouped into a series of rooms." Says Rollins, "I love boxwood and the name of the house is Boxwood."

Chartreuse Stunner

This Japanese maple's vivid green leaves look especially dazzling when set against the sunlight.

A Backyard Paradise

Trellis Time

Soldierly rows of trellises and neat raised beds give Rollins' potager a defined, neat appearance. Marigolds in the edible garden are a natural way to keep pests away and also add a touch of beauty.

Arresting Azalea

"I grew up in Dallas" says Rollins, "and you're not supposed to grow azaleas there." But Rollins' mother was insistent that she grow azaleas in her own garden. Rollins' parents—including her mother's love of azaleas—were a real inspiration for her garden. Her parents continue to help out with Rollins' garden.

Pink Lady

A Family Affair

Rollins' father designed the knot garden that defines the home's facade and sets an orderly, classical tone for what is to come.

Best Face Forward

"I love gardening," says Rollins. "I think it is the only time I can turn my head off. You can't text and garden at the same time, which is a good thing!"

Japanese Maples

Japanese maples are one of Rollins' favorites and she maintains several cultivars on the property.

A Dog's Best Friend

It's hard to keep the dogs out of the raised beds, where they like to munch on greens.

Stone Path

Large stones form a charming pathway—and perch—in the garden.

Boxed In

It's hard not to yearn for the manicured hedges and beautifully orchestrated design of Rollins' garden, but remember that it takes a team of gardeners and landscapers to keep this estate looking perfect. The owner of Galbraith Grounds Management, Marc Galbraith, who has maintained the estate for the past five years, says it takes 50 man hours a week to maintain the grounds during the peak growing season.

Camellia Japonica

A perfect blossom of Camellia japonica 'Kramer's Supreme' blooms in Rollins' garden. Many of the camellia bushes in the garden date back for generations. "It was like a treasure hunt" says Rollins, of uncovering the heritage varieties of plants and shrubs on the site when she purchased the house.

Vintage Charm

Gas lanterns above the garage add character to this 1927 Philip Schutze home in Atlanta.

European Influence

Rollins' favored black and white motif continues in a whimsical outdoor refuse can and outdoor carpet. Her potted fruit trees can be seen in the distance, getting some spring air after a winter spent indoors.

It's a Dog's Life

Rollins' garden teems with both botanical and other life. She has two children who often help her garden, and four dogs who love to roam the property.

Garden Pond

One of the exquisite garden features for reflection on Danielle Rollins' Atlanta estate.

A Place for Play

A playhouse and trampoline attest to a backyard built not just for beauty, but for active children.

Azalea Groves

Azaleas are a favorite shrub for Danielle Rollins' family, tended with great devotion by her mother in their native Dallas. Azalea are now a key feature of Danielle Rollins' Atlanta garden, continuing the family tradition.

Espalier

Espaliered pear and apple trees are a unique feature of Rollins' garden.

Gimme Shelter

Believe it or not, this beautiful outbuilding is used to house such quotidian necessities as garden tools and trash cans.

Millstone Marvel

Creeping Fig

Heirloom Camellia

Though orange is her favorite color, there are plenty of white, pink and ruby accents in Danielle Rollins' garden.

Roadside Blooms

In spring Rollins' Buckhead neighborhood erupts with the intense color of azaleas which distinguish many of the homes in this quiet, elegant Atlanta neighborhood.

Made for Entertaining

Rollins loves to entertain both large and small groups in her garden she laughs, "as soon as we get through the pollen." She especially likes to incorporate huge masses of flowers from her gardens, such as gardenia, peonies and magnolia, as table decor. One event, done in coordination with Tennessee's Blackberry Farms, featured a herd of sheep grazing on the front lawn, and a crowd of 250. She's also staged a "Gatsby"-style party with croquet and for her 40th birthday party, created a disco at the koi pond.

Koi Pond

Rollins had this koi pond added to her home as a feature that would use all sides of the house.

Drive By

Much of the appeal of this Atlanta garden comes from levels of interest, including grouped plantings of azaleas and camellias, carefully sculpted boxwoods and a sense of movement encouraged by myriad pathways within the garden.

Walled Garden

Espaliered fruit trees and clipped boxwoods enunciate this gate leading to storage and other utilitarian garden necessities. There are myriad ways to mask unsightly features of the garden with gorgeous design.

Azalea Allée

One of Rollins' favorite shrubs, azalea 'George Tabor' thrives in her Atlanta garden.

Fresh Greens

Rollins grows an array of savory and sweet produce in her garden which she uses for parties and everyday cooking.